Ingénue
by DIA MN D S
Summary: They sprung up, thirsting for sunlight. And though I knew they were not ordinary or even safe to touch, I let them tangle in my limbs as I laid amongst them, letting them build a house around my broken body. I never thought about how insignificant my life seemed until I was put down, displayed as a weak human girl before monsters I had only just learned were in existence.
1. Capitolo Uno

Ingénue

_I saw them, the flowers. The daisies blossoming like I was taken back to the warmest day of spring. Your vines were creeping through the darkest part of my mind, they felt like the very rays the sun radiates in the spring. I could feel them reaching out to me though I felt death was upon me. They sprung upwards towards the sky, thirsting for sunlight. The further they grew, the more that came up behind them. And though I knew they were not ordinary or even safe to touch, I let them tangle in my limbs as I laid amongst them, letting them build a house around my broken body. _

_I wondered what would happen. I never thought about how insignificant my existence seemed until I was put down. Displayed as a weak human girl before the monsters I had only just learned were in existence. _

* * *

><p>moon kingdom<p>

* * *

><p><em>Dearest Tsubasa,<em>

_Is the summer gone already? I miss the warm evenings. They are vivid reminder of the rich sunsets peeping over the treetops of my old home. The house I used to live in on the opposite block from yours, with the dark bricks… Our parents used to vacation together in June. Don`t you remember how we used to run down the docks and play in the ocean? We had so much fun when we were younger. I hoped that my letters would rekindle our friendship. I hope I`ve been sending them to the right address. They never come back, no return to sender. Perhaps you`re just shy? If you write me and ask to stop then you will have silenced me forever! _

_I wanted to tell you about school. High School is supposed to be daunting and frightening but I`m actually having a wonderful time! Isn`t that strange? I used to be so reserved when I was younger. Well, I`m sure you remember…_

I lifted my pen from the stationary and looked out the window. The lights and scenery blurred below from my castle up in the sky, safely tucked away in the all girl's dormitory where I would remain until the next term started in spring. It had seemed like I had only recently unpacked myself from the mountain of boxes that had occupied the small space with me. Time passes when your head is encased in its own little glass world, I think to myself as I look back up at the fading stars.

I imagined myself reaching out and plucking one from the sky to pin back my hair, and another to buckle my shoe

April seemed so far away. I had spent my summer in a classroom wasting my education on vivid daydreams about becoming a bird on the outside of the walls. It was a wonderful school blooming with opportunities but the only ones worth seeking seemed to only exist in my imagination.

The street lights flickered off as the sun started to make it`s first appearance, a new day was dawning. The sunlight was shoving the moon out of the picture and the stars were fleeing the sky with it. I looked over to the bedside and read the numbers glowing back at me.

6:13 AM

I frowned and turned back to the letter I had been meaning write all evening. I had tried to sleep for some time but I couldn`t fall asleep. My mind kept me awake into the late hours thinking about what kind of adventure he was on and if our paths would ever cross again, if he would only just reply to me.

I had written him every day since April.

_We used to pretend that you were a prince and I was your queen. I would weave crowns of underwater blossoms and you would battle sailors. Are you still a valiant prince? Has fate separated us so that we can discover new kingdoms? Sometimes I imagine that you have gone looking for the silver mirror that is the moon on the water at night, the most valuable treasure in our palace. It isn`t tangible, you are looking for something that only exists through a metaphor. I wish I knew. Sometimes I think that your reply to my letters is my silver mirror. It`s unattainable and leaves me despairing. Would it help if I told you that my letters to you are the silver reflection of my mind? Could I be your mirror? My hands look fragile but my fingers can still weave crowns out of blossoms. I could make shell necklaces and crowns adorned with pearls…._

I pause. Would he find all this banter silly? Laugh at me like I`m some sort of infantilized child. But he wouldn`t do that to me… not the boy that I`d grown up with. I`d always hoped that one day if he did choose to reply that it would bring me so much joy. What if he replied and he didn't want me to write to him any longer? Would I still be happy knowing that at least I wasn`t sending my words into another galaxy completely. I imagined every little symbol lifting from the page and evaporating into bits of stardust.

I pushed my chair back from my desk, rolling across the minty carpet.

No, I have to have faith in him. Maybe he just doesn`t know what to think of me. After all, I had been the one that had stopped replying to his letters after we`d moved from our first home. This was my punishment. I deserved to be chained in a dungeon and beaten with sticks, or cast out and exiled of the kingdom for all eternity! Shamed, pleading slave for some mercy from the beloved prince…

And if he shows no mercy…?  
>I run my fingers through the loose curls of my hair, reaching for my long, slender barrette off of the nightstand. I pin back my hair and secure the pin in the center. Pinching my cheeks, I revive the natural glow and check the mirror for impurities. My mascara has flaked and fallen atop my cheekbones like the ashes of singed feathers.<p>

Reaching for the makeup remover, I begin to remedy this as quickly as possible. The bakery down the street would be open soon and I was ready to eat something sweet and savory, something that could possibly make me feel better about my situation.

My eyes wandered in the reflection of my vanity to the floating cranes in the corner of the room, hung from an iron ring. I had folded nearly a thousand and sewn them in rows of pale blues and pinks, some were white, some grey. Nine hundred and ninety nine, secured at the end by little silver beads so they would not escape. Trapped permanently on the thread. How sad! I had convinced myself that they would be forever flying if they were suspended in the air, their wings fanned out. They were not alone, keeping each other company.

A single pale blue square of paper had been left for me to fold the thousandth crane and attach it with the others. I quickly finished lining my eyes before setting the pencil back into it`s drawer to fold the last swan. I started with a horizontal fold down the middle, carefully pressing it into a fold before continuing onto the next step. A thousand cranes is said to bring good health, and you can make a wish on the last crane and it is supposed to come true for you. I longed to wish that Tsubasa would reply to my letter, however I was going to give these cranes to someone special, someone that needed good health, needed a wish much more than I did. So my wish wouldn`t be used on Tsu...

My father always told me that I should never wish for anything more than I already have. I put my lips to the hole in the bottom of the folds and used my breath to bring the crane to life, forming the shape of its body. But did that mean material items strictly or was companionship was included?

I held the completed crane in my palm, staring at its tiny frame in wonder. The thousandth swan. I`d been working on it for a month until my fingers all but bled. Paper cuts stinging as I worked tediously trying to complete them, anxious I was on a time limit. I let my eyes close as I held the tiny paper crane in my hand, and I wished for the good health and a rich future to the soul on the receiving end of my cranes.

I opened my eyes, finding the sun peeking up at me through my window, and I was basking in the first light of day.

I quickly threaded the last swan into place before securing it with another glass bead before going fetching my shoes from the entryway closet. I switched off my lights and wandered into the kitchen. I could see my roommate, Ai, sleeping peacefully on the sofa after a long night of vegetating. The television was still on and the shades were still wide open, letting the sun cast its rays onto the girl`s sleeping figure. She looked like a fair princess asleep with her limbs sprawled across the sofa, her fingers curled around a bottle. Pin straight, excessively black hair cascaded like a waterfall over her shoulders and spilled over the side of the couch, threatening to dip into the floor like the vines of a willow tree lazily swaying over the lake of powder blue carpet.

I noticed how dark her eyelids were, as if she had painted them with shadow. In reality she was a sleep deprived sleeping beauty. I drew the curtains so she would not wake so soon, concerned about her health. I reached for the knit blanket draped over the opposite arm of the sofa and let it fall over her body, tucking it here and there to keep it slightly secured.

Poor thing spent her week cramming for her biology and organic chemistry classes all while forgetting to fuel her body with sleep or food. Ai only had free time on the weekends and it was spent binge watching her favorite TV shows.

I didn`t dare wake her now, letting my feet step lightly around her and out the front door. I made sure to lock the door behind me, protecting her from the terrors that were the other beings that lived in the other apartments in our building that we didn`t associate with.

When we had moved into our apartment in April, Ai and I had never been introduced before. I was rooming with a complete stranger and while I was completely excited to settle down and get to know her, she was more concerned about estranging herself from me completely. The first three months of living together I didn`t have any clue at all as to what the girl had even looked like. She was an invisible force, coming and going at distinct times that I would not be present to see her leave her bedroom. The salt on the counter would be moved ever so slightly and dishes would disappear and reappear in the cupboards. Towels would be left draped over the chair one moment and gone when I returned from class. I felt that I may have been living with a ghost and then would lay awake at night and convince myself that Ai _really was _a ghost. So much so that one night I had finally gathered the courage and with my bravest face I knocked on her door and demanded that she come out and prove that she really did exist.

I remembered it vividly, my knuckles on the door, the barrier separating us for three whole months. Three! Months!

The door had abruptly swung open and before me stood a slightly taller girl, dark hair disheveled. Her eyelids slightly purple and her pale skin like smooth marble. Charcoal eyes stared back at me, an eyebrow cocked questioningly as an irritated expression spread over her features the longer I stared at her like she was the teacher on the day of a test I had forgotten was on the syllabus. I felt like shrinking, melting into the floor like ice under the glare of the sun on a hot summer day.

"…Yeah?" She yawned, leaning into the frame and closing her eyes for what she had probably thought was only momentarily.

"…Are you real?" I had blurted, "Like a person?"

Her eyes narrowed further and she straightened, crossing her slender arms across her chest. Oh no, I had disgruntled her. But at least she seemed human.

"I don`t know, is that a _real _question?"  
>"Well I wasn`t sure what to think," I giggled nervously, sweating underneath her stare, sloping down off of a perfectly pointed nose, "At first I thought maybe you didn`t like me and then maybe that you were just antisocial—but for the past few nights I began to think that maybe you were really an apparition! That maybe you were haunting the apartment and I was all alone," I inhaled quickly, "And then I thought maybe if I never confronted you that if you were a demon, which I am relieved that you aren`t one—whew," I wiped sweat from my brow,<p>

"Anyway if you were a ghost, maybe you would haunt me at night and try to scare me or possess me! Or maybe if you were a friendly ghost we could become friends or something, maybe," It sounded more like a question than a thought. A request, please be my friend!

Ai stared back at me with her eyes wide, as if I was talking circles around her—which people often tell me I do, but I couldn`t help but keep talking under her intense stare,

"Sometimes I feel like I am the only person that lives in the whole building! I am so lonely and I feel that if only I had someone to watch television that I could pretend we have conversations during the commercial break or maybe if you just left your door open so that I know I`m not alone if you don`t want to sit with me…"

"You`re like a child, for Christ`s sake." She drawled, turning her back to me and walking towards the desk cluttered with books on the opposite wall from us, "Listen I can keep my door open but I got a lot of things to do. I have to study for a cycloalkane nomenclature quiz before my eyes fall out of their sockets—"

"—Whatever you say! I can make some snacks!" I shouted, before turning on my heel and rushing the kitchen pantry for ingredients to make cookies with. Any excuse to bake was enough for me.

Long story short, I ended up burning the cookies and the alarms in the building were set off and we all had to evacuate the building on the hottest day of summer when it was just a false alarm. No one was harmed and Ai hasn`t stopped making fun of me since.

Well, she was actually pretty raving mad about it at first because it interrupted her study session and she posted her mediocre quiz grade on the refrigerator to remind me to never bake anything while she was studying again.

But I preferred the smell of cookies, even burning cookies to that of the frigid, fuel scented air that covered the train station. I shivered, my legs going numb in my crisp, white scrubs. I had made sure to grab my jacket and scarf to put over it, but the material around my legs was thin and didn`t do a very good job at containing my body heat. I felt that I was in Iceland or maybe the North Pole, and then I thought of the snow queen. She was angered because her love had left her and she wanted the world to suffer under her early winter frost. It was hardly halfway through the fall and the mornings were brisk as ever.

Don`t be angry, Snow Queen, I thought to myself, plenty of us have lost love before. If you take your mind off of it, you`re sure to discover another when you least expect to.

And then I thought of my own beloved prince. Perhaps he was trying to fight her chill at this very moment too. How I wished I could bring warmth to his cheeks by giving him a kiss on his lips. I thought maybe he could lend her his angel wings and let her fly to distract her from her pain and then the sun would come out, instead of these dark and grey clouds.

Cranes on my lap, I watched as the world sped past me from my seat on the shuttle, I imagined that Tsubasa was my wings and that I could fly if only he would return to me. I could see the feathers in the words on his letter, and the wind would carry it to me without the help of a postman. He was my angel, the grace I feel when a breeze lifts my hair off of my shoulders and tucks it behind my ears. He`s around me in a sense and probably doesn`t even know it…

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><p>Once I am through the clean, glass sliding doors I am greeted by the warmth of Chiba Hokusou Hospital and clock in at the computer behind the lobby desk, securing my name tag on sitting just below my left collarbone. I stroll right past the employee coat rack with my cranes and make my way for the elevator, eager to give my cranes to one of my favorite patients in the ICU.<p>

My volunteer work at Chiba Hokusou began in June when the hospital opened. I was offered a position in housekeeping after applying out of admiration of sharing the same name as the hospital. On top of my housekeeping work, I volunteer to take care and visit with patients to receive credit for my volunteer hours. We are required forty hours per semester, and though I have to clock out for my volunteer hours I don`t really mind. The building is brand new and beautiful, with a modern look about its architecture. The university was excited to open its third hospital. Though medicine never really interested me, I was content spending time caring for others.

One patient in particular had always seemed to brighten my day. She reminded me of my mother in the sense that she always entertained every bright thought and idea that came to me. I wasn`t used to people… _listening_. And it meant so much to me. I had spent well over my volunteer hours just visiting with her even long after visiting hours had ended.

"Good morning!" My voice extended brightly into the ICU, where several patients were already sitting up and awake. The very last curtain was pulled back to reveal a dark haired woman in her mid thirties, holding an oxygen mask to her mouth, inhaling deeply. Her eyes were closed and she had a look of relief on her face, as if it was the first breath of air she`d taken that day.

Another nurse, Harada, was hovering over her, a pensive look about her. Harada stared at the patient as if she could shatter into a million pieces within the blink of an eye. I halted upon the sight and felt a lump forming in my throat. Not all of the patients at the hospital made if out, and it was the first time I had seen this woman`s illness show itself.

"I feel much better now, thank you," The woman removed the oxygen mask and smiled with relief, causing the nurse to sigh as well.

"Hello Hoshiko-chan," The woman smiled up at me from her bed, chestnut eyes brightening upon looking at me, "Oh my, look at all of those cranes."

"I brought them for you, Shiori," I walked around to the right side of her bed, near the window,

"I figured I could hang them here so you can look at them every time you wake up. These will bring you good health for sure!" I drug a chair used for visitors over so that I could reach the empty hook on the ceiling with my cranes. Once I had placed the hanger they floated from on the hook, I let them go and watched them sway back and forth gently on their threads.

"What a thoughtful thing of you to do. Those must have taken you a very long time to make."

Shiori smiled up at the pastel cranes and I admired them once I had stepped back onto the floor. They were sailing on their own now, keeping Shiori company and bringing her good fortune. I eyed the last crane I had made the wish on, knowing that it would not let either of us down.

"One month exactly. But it wasn`t even a chore to me," I turned to her, about to tell her about how I had imagined every single crane was flying somewhere warm and filled with life and that they would take her with them—but I was interrupted by a young man that had barreled into the ICU before visiting hours was supposed to start.

"Mother," He was breathless, falling at Shiori`s side and taking her face in both of his hands,

"I got a call—they told me you were suffocating, so I came as quickly as I could,"

I noticed how unkempt his hair looked, bright red and long. It seemed to be tangled and I noticed that the boy had appeared as if he had just rolled out of bed. Being that it wasn`t even eight yet on a Saturday morning, I assumed that he had. I noticed his t shirt was un-tucked in the back of his jeans as opposed to the front.

Other than his unkempt appearance, he had strikingly handsome features. He could have been a prince if it weren`t for his unruly red hair.

His vibrant, wide green eyes frantically searched Shiori`s face as she reached up and placed her tiny, pale fingers over her son`s healthy and glowing olive skin. She took his hand in hers and smiled reassuringly,

"Shuichi I`m fine, it was just a hiccup. They didn`t need to call you. Oh, look at you," She reached her arm out to smooth her son`s hair and then looked past him to acknowledge that I was still watching the entire scene quietly next to the floating cranes.

"Hoshiko, this is my son, Shuichi,"

The boy turned and met my eyes with a wistful look, distraction in his eyes. He was a soldier and on a mission to assure himself that his mother was truly alright. I could have been a blue bird on a telephone wire outside of the hospital.

"Hello," Shuichi uttered his greeting before turning back to his mother, his frail queen on her throne.

"Are you sure you`re breathing alright? Is your chest tight?"

"I just checked her pulse," Harada verified, "It had dropped for a moment but it`s back to normal now. I think it would be best if we put her on a monitor."

I could feel my lips press into a tight line, and I didn`t have to look at Shiori to know that she had the same reaction. The cranes would help, I told myself. I just needed to have faith, and maybe my faith in Shiori would help to reassure her as well. Harada left to fetch one of the doctors and I was thinking about making my exit as well so that I could start on switching the bed sheets in the recovery room down the hall.

"Shuichi, Hoshiko was in the middle of presenting me with those cranes. She spent a month making them for me. Isn`t that such a nice thought?"

"It is," He verified, nodding at me as he glanced over at my cranes. I appreciated him feigning interest in them.

"Hoshiko is the girl I`ve told you about, the one that tells me the stories. If it weren`t for her I think I might go insane in here."

"Thank you for keeping her company then," He smiled now, baring clean, kept teeth. I noticed the circles under his eyes, next to his long lashes. They were similar to the circles Ai had from lack of sleep. He looked like a weary soldier that had seen many bloody battles. Tired eyes that had seen too much for someone that looked as if they were not much older than I.

"I love Shiori`s company." I smiled back, "But I`d better go, I have to take those sheets to the laundry room downstairs."

"Could you show Shuichi out, dear? He has some errands to run today and should be on his way."

"Mother," He looked cross now, his brows knitting together in discontent that she would shoo him away so soon. Shiori was that type of person, she never wanted to be fussed over the way the nurses did.

Which was probably why she enjoyed my company. I treated her as if she wasn`t a patient, and she treated me as if I wasn`t a basket case.

"If she doesn`t throw you out, another staff member will," I said, "Visiting hours don`t start until ten."

"Go to your club activities," Shiori instructed firmly now, "Scoot." She brushed her hand over his hair once more before giving him a little push. The boy stood from the bedside. He was tall and lean, and towered over the bedside as he leaned down to kiss the woman`s forehead lovingly. A devoted soldier to his queen. I blushed at the sight and turned to the cart filled with bed sheets that needed washing.

"I`ll be up after I clock out this afternoon," I waved at the woman who smiled brightly at me from her pillow. Shuichi held the door for me as I shoved the cart through and we both made our way for the elevator at the end of the hall.

Once we had reached the elevator, he leaned over me and pressed the button for the main lobby four floors below. The doors waited a couple moments before closing slowly, sealing us in the space together.

"I can tell that my mother really enjoys your company." His straight tone concerned me, and I looked across the elevator and watched as the boy gazed straight ahead with his green eyes looking completely soulless.

"It`s almost like you are staring into a long winter." I couldn`t stop myself from speaking with the whir of the elevator in the background. His head turned, shifting to meet his eyes to mine now. I could see how much darker of a green color they had turned. Almost like the healthy green color had begun to turn black.  
>"What`s so bleak about the future? Is it your mother? She`s going to be fine, I made a wish on the last crane…. That she would be well by the next full moon."<p>

I watched as his eyes widened slightly and then narrowed into a calculating look.

"Why did you decide on the full moon?" He asked, giving me another brooding look. I smiled at the floor before giving my silly little answer.

"Because when the moon is full it shines on the sea and it looks like a silver mirror… I know it seems silly but, the mirror is the forbidden treasure in the moon kingdom and it is supposed to grant a wish as well."

"The moon kingdom?"

"It`s actually underwater, but it`s the moon kingdom."

"And you said on the full moon, the mirror will make her well again?" His question was strange, as if he was actually contemplating the words that I was saying. Something only the Minamino family seemed to have in common, seeing as no one else took me very seriously.

"Mhmm." I hummed, watching as the doors opened before us on our floor. We stepped into the lobby, and I headed for the laundry room. It was quiet, seeing that it was still rather early for visiting hours. I felt long, slender fingers wrap around my arm as I tried to make my way for the door, and I was pulled to a halt by the warrior son.  
>I turned and saw a realization in his expression, his posture held a sort of confidence to it, and his unkempt appearance did not take away from him now.<p>

"Where do I find this mirror?"

I blinked up at him, and he let my arm slip from his gentle grasp. Not that it mattered, but Tsubasa was the only other person I could think of that had been searching for it.

"It`s unattainable. It only presents itself to those who aren`t looking when the moon is full."

"That isn`t true," He glanced around, keeping his voice low, "How did you find out about this mirror?"

I was hesitant to answer, but the determination on his face was telling me that he wouldn`t let me go without an answer.

"I heard about it when I was a child. That it grants wishes. My wings went in search of it a long time ago,"  
>"…Wings?"<p>

"The prince of the moon kingdom."

"The moon kingdom," He blinked, "Do you mean the Reikai?" He pressed, "It`s the only logical kingdom I can think of,"

I was bewildered as to why he was acting as if the Moon Kingdom truly existed. He was drawing conclusions from no where about a story that I had only made up as a child. Could he really be serious?

"Could it be that you`re a psychic?" He asked now, leaning forward. I stepped back, right into my cart, intimidated.

"Your mother just introduced us," I stammered, "I don`t understand why you`re asking me… why are you so interested in the story about the moon kingdom, did Shiori tell you about it?"

"So it exists, the mirror," He interrupted, "And it belongs to the kingdom."

"…It`s only a story." I answered, spooked by his behavior completely, "I can tell you about it after my shift if you`re really that curious." Though I was hoping he would just let it go.

He looked past me now, vision clouding over in thought.

"No, you`ve told me enough." He turned away slightly before making eye contact with me again,

"Thank you."

And with that, he turned and vigorously made his way for the front entrance. I stood in the lobby, clutching my cart tightly as I watched this soldier on a mission leave.

_Tsubasa_, I thought, _if he does search for this mirror_, _this soldier will surely give you a run for your money_.

* * *

><p>Fin<p> 


	2. Capitolo Due

Ingénue

_They`re on our heels, Kurama`s inner voice hissed throughout his mind, sending shivers down his spine and chilling him,_

"_There isn`t much time. Hiei," He called back to the smaller demon that had retrieved the artifacts as Gouki dealt with the vault guards. _

"_Let`s go." Hiei appeared at the red head`s side, placing the tiny mirror in his eagerly awaiting and twitchy palm. _

_This is the first time in fifteen years that I`ve done something like this, and as suspected…_

_His feet flew down the long corridor just behind the even quicker, raven haired demon in front of him. The larger brute was a few yards behind but making his way nonetheless. Hiei was the force in front, eradicating anyone that decided to place themselves in their way. _

…_I`m afraid._

* * *

><p>whipped truffle cream<p>

* * *

><p>"Hello again, Minamino," I looked up from the armchair I was nodding off in next to my sleeping mother. It was past visiting hours and I had yet to be shooed from the intensive care unit.<p>

She was still here, and I had recognized her as the girl with hair the color of whipped truffle cream. It was like beige tulle, the top layer pulled to the back by a slim, black barrette, leaving the remaining silky curls to cascade down her back. I noticed her brown liner had been slightly smudged in the corners of her tired eyes, contrasting strikingly with her pale skin and velvety blue eyes.

She had been here for a few hours already, I`d seen her changing the sheets earlier. Here she was again with her cart, leaving it in the same spot she retrieved it from the other day. I had been thinking about what she`d been rambling about, what with the Kingdom and knowing about the Forlorn Hope.

"Chiba," I nodded at her from my chair, tensing. Perhaps she would ask me to go home. Instead, she pulled the curtain back to bring up a chair and sat on the other side of my mother as she slept. She kept her voice hushed as she spoke as well under the dim lamp light.

"She`s been sleeping like this all day." She noted, eyes fluttering over the sleeping woman, a saddened look of concern on her cherub face,

"I`d hate to think that it has something to do with what`s happening to those children in Bunkyo."

I felt my body tense at the mention of the latest news story. One of the artifacts we had stolen the other night was an orb with the reputation that it steals the souls of innocents and stows them away until the user decides the right time to feast upon them. I did not agree with Gouki`s method, however he had helped me in retrieving the forlorn hope and sadly it was in my opinion that my mother`s life was worth more than his sacrificial meals.

"I don`t think so, unless something is spreading through the water."

"No, why would it start affecting others now when your mother`s been sick for over a month." She murmured, looking warily to the corner where her cranes were suspended,

"I was hoping the cranes would help, but she only seems to be getting worse."

It was strange how attached the girl had grown to my mother after such a short amount of time. I wondered if she cared for all of the patients in a similar way. Of course, that would cause for an excessive amount of heartbreak for someone that appears to be so sensitive to her surroundings.

"I wouldn`t worry. After all, I`m sure by the time of the next full moon she`ll be well again."

She met my eyes and pursed her peach toned lips tightly, as if she had bad news. She inhaled slowly,

"Minamino, about the other day, when I said that, I hate to be a pessimist, but I don`t really know for sure if the cranes will do that. I want to believe it badly, and I still sort of do. But I want you to be prepared if they fail. It wouldn`t be the first time my wild ideas failed me."

"In a sense they aren`t all that far fetched. Stranger turn-arounds have happened. I think it is very likely she`ll be well by the next moon."

I decided against mentioning the mirror. After all, she`d said she`d been making it up, but I thought it unlikely. And if I had told her that I`d retrieved it from the Reikai, would she ask for it? I had no idea what the girl was capable of. Psychics could be as dangerous as apparitions and she could have some sort of connection to the Reikai as well.

"But I think I need to clear some things up, all of those things I said, …I just let my imagination run wild sometimes and it`s easy for my to run my mouth at times. I`m sorry I didn`t ever mean to give you false hope for your mother—"  
>"Nonsense," I interrupted, "I`m a grown boy. I can deal with my emotions. Don`t worry about me." I smiled at her and her now saddened blue eyes averted my gaze to the floor.<p>

"I really am fond of your mother. She reminds me of my own mother. It isn`t easy to find someone willing to listen to me blather all day about nonsense. She makes me feel like I have something worth listening to. Except my own mother has to listen to me, the whole unconditional love. Your mother is sincere in a way I have never encountered before. She`s so graceful and kind, she`s like a real life queen. She may as well be the queen of all things lovely…" She blinked back up at me now, forcing a nervous laugh,

"Oh no, I`m doing it again. I`m sorry."

I shook my head, glad the conversation was taking a lighter note,

"Don`t be. It`s your blithe imagination that brings a smile to her face, after all. She`s told me about you a few times before."

"I`m sure she`s told you how silly I am." She laughed nervously, and I stared back at her in confusion. My mother had never breathed a single negative word of the girl and wouldn`t even if she did think her stories were silly.

"Not at all. You must be speaking out of your own insecurity."

Shocked by my comment, Hoshiko`s face flushed. I decided to change the subject again in order to distract her.

"How did you meet the prince of the moon kingdom?"

"We used to play together as kids," Her words ran into each other, one after another, "Minamino, really, the neighbor boy and I made up the whole thing. It isn`t real."  
>"I think there`s some truth to it. I`m intrigued. My mother tells me your stories are wonderful to listen to. She says you`re a very eloquent young lady."<p>

"She said that about me?" She gaped, her face flushing more as she sat up straighter in her chair. I nodded, smiling a little. She exhaled, grinning at Shiori,

"Well I guess I could tell you." She leaned over the arm of the chair now, resting her elbow on the arm so that she could cradle her head to the side in her hand as her eyes searched off to the side in a dreamy state, as if she could only pluck these thoughts from the depths of her mind. Her creamy tresses flowed with her movements and my nose picked up on the faint smell of sandalwood and lily of the valley from across the few feet separating us.

She looked so serene as she inhaled, and pulled me into a far fetched tale about her _moon kingdom_.

" His name is Tsubasa, and he is a prince—but he`d lost his wings. One day I discovered him weeping down by the lake behind my house and when I asked him why he was crying, he had explained to me that he had lost his wings to the sea witch in the moon kingdom. The witch had enticed him by making him believe she was a beautiful mermaid, the queen of the kingdom. He fell in love with her immediately—and she persuaded him into visiting her below the water."

I noticed the change in her demeanor as she took a deep breath to continue on, as if the story still had an emotional pull on her after retelling it so many times,

"But Tsubasa couldn`t breathe underwater, so the witch—who was disguised—convinced him that if he traded in his wings during the daylight, he would be granted the ability to breathe underwater. He immediately consented and that was when the witch ripped his wings from him. He`d told me that the pain was like being skinned alive,"

I noticed tears welling in the corner of her eyes as she fought them back,

"He was still granted his breath under the water, and he took refuge at the bottom of the sea and in the dark mourned the loss of his wings. He was then discovered by the _real_ princess of the moon kingdom, who was far more beautiful than the sea witch`s disguise.

Of course Tsubasa was hesitant but eventually he let the true princess take him back to the palace underwater where she helped soothe his wounds. It was the princess who informed him that he could still use his wings during the night, and that the sea witch had kept her bargain with him. But when the sun set and the moon rose, his wings turned black and sprouted on their own and were equally as painful to regrow each night as they had been when they were originally ripped from him. And that`s when I found him, weeping on the shore. He`d told me that even if he were to retrieve his wings, he could never visit the moon kingdom again.

But I`d heard an old story, a long time ago that if you make a wish on a silver mirror that it would come true in exchange for a prized possession. And once I`d told him, he`d made up his mind to dedicating every night searching for this mirror. During the day he would help me swim closer to the moon kingdom, breathing air into me along the way so that I could behold the wonders of its palace and the secrets of the sea. I was completely enamored by it…

I used to sit on the shore and weave necklaces out of sea flowers and adorn myself with sea pearls and speak to the blue fish…" She met my eyes briefly before stopping herself, carrying on with the story,

"One night when the moon was at it`s fullest and reflecting off the water, the mirror appeared to me when I was waiting on the shore for his return. It offered to grant me a wish in return for my mobility—my legs. When I asked how I would live without my legs, it offered me a tail with fins, blue like a fish. I would live in the moon kingdom for the remainder of my life in exchange for my wish…" She trailed off, and her pause was so long that I thought maybe she wouldn`t continue.

"What did you wish for?" I asked, expecting the answer was the return of her beloved`s wings. She only shook her head from side to side.

"I couldn`t make a wish. I wasn`t strong enough to devote my life to the moon kingdom. I merely skated along the surface of the water and peered down at it from the shore when Tsubasa wasn`t there to escort me. I never told him about the mirror, either. I figured I wouldn`t until I discovered another way… and then one night he disappeared altogether. And I`ve been trying to reach him ever since. Sometimes I make up stories about what he`s doing…"

"And then I met you, and you seemed so interested and determined about the mirror, and I was hesitant to tell you this story because even though it exists in my imagination, I don`t want it to be found. Because a part of me is afraid that if it were to somehow exist, that in reality the price would be far much worse than my legs alone… because it was an equal trade then. So if Tsubasa, heaven forbid, if he were dead, then my wish would be to retrieve his life, not just his wings, and the exchange would be…"

"Your life in return." I finished the sentence.

Hoshiko shifted uncomfortably in her seat as my eyes hardened, watching her body twitch here and there. There was something so similar about this story, that she had to have been keeping bits of information out. Perhaps she was a spy for the Reikai, a psychic that could predict our theft. It made more sense this way. Why else would she casually bring up Gouki`s victims to me? She had predicted the crime before I had committed it, which meant she was likely to know my true identity.

Which would mean that the care of my mother is in the hands of the Reikai, and they`re watching my every move.

"You`re a wonderful actress, Chiba," I sucked my teeth angrily, but kept a calm mask on over the sudden hurricane that had taken a turn inside me. They would drag my mother into this. _She was innocent_.

They had already sent their detective after us. A boy with the classic under-dog, yet heroic look about him, the confident demeanor of a street thug with an inkling of spiritual energy. Surely he was not enough to take neither Hiei or I down, and Hiei had been so kind as to update me that he had lost a battle to Gouki already.

The perturbed little demon stopped by my home earlier when I had bailed out on them. Perhaps the detective and Hoshiko were a warning from the Reikai, spooking us into turning ourselves in before they released a real threat…

Hiei was angry with me for withdrawing, but I had made it very clear to him that I was only interested in making a pact to retrieve the mirror so that my mother would be well again. I had no intention of being arrested and no interest in helping Hiei with his war of drones, especially when I knew the Reikai would send their bounty hunters after him. He wanted to use his artifact to recruit an army to dominate the land with, but I hadn`t the heart to inform him that he was far too weak even with his demon slaves to do any real damage. His plan was bound to fail once he had imagined it, but I selfishly used him to help me gain the possession I had desired.

Pity though, Hiei had been a companion for a couple of years and it seemed that I wasn`t above ripping the carpet out from under my allies even after all this time. I could hear old, tortured screams echoing somewhere from my past.

The girl stared at me with her doe eyes, feigning uncertainty. I pulled the mirror from my uniform`s pocket and held it out to her,

"I was the one who broke into the King`s vault and retrieved your so-called silver mirror."

Her eyes widened as she stared at her own reflection in the Forlorn Hope, looking from the mirror to me, and then back again.

"I don`t understand, it couldn`t be—"

"You`re still pretending like you don`t know. I know that you`ve been hired by the Reikai to watch over me. You`re very clearly a psychic portraying yourself as an imaginative, innocent girl. You know who I am, don`t you?"

She gaped, pushing her chair back and standing and attempting to make an escape, but I was faster than she was and grabbed a hold of her arm for the second time in the past week, this time with a firmer grasp.

"Please listen to my request," I spoke in a hushed tone, as to not startle her further. She whipped around to face me, fright taking over her features. Had she no means of protecting herself? Surely an ally of the Reikai would have some sort of power to secure herself as a spy. Unless…

"What do you want from me?" Tears welled in her eyes as her voice raised, "Please, I don`t understand what you need me for. The mirror isn`t real, whatever that is—"

And as the words flung from her lips, the glass of the mirror illuminated itself, emanating a blinding light.

"_The full moon is near_. _Do not question my power." _

Hoshiko yipped at the sudden voice—resonating throughout what sounded like the back of my own mind. Her hands flung over her ears once I released her,

"What is that?!" She was hysterical now.

Something told me she wasn`t pretending now, as frightened tears ran down her face, taking her smudged eyeliner with it.

"Make it stop, _please_," The girl cried, backing away more, arms protectively crossed in front of her. She turned on her heels and bolted for the door, leaving her jacket and her scarf behind along with the fragrant ghost of her presence and her whipped truffle cream.

I cursed myself for jumping to a conclusion. I was wired what with the condition Shiori was in and paranoid after my first theft in fifteen years. I was paranoid before I had even stolen the mirror.

I watched as the light on the reflective surface demurred and faded completely. I stared down at the object I had coveted for some time now. I hadn`t even had half the mind to at least wipe the girl`s memory.

I should apologize, I thought, though maybe I should just avoid her instead.

Shiori remained sleeping peacefully. I picked up the scarf and the jacket and set them on the night stand next to the bed, hoping no one would think to remove or take them.

I looked to the cranes that swayed, provoked in the corner by the ruckus I had caused moments before.  
>They solidified my foolishness.<p>

* * *

><p>My feet flew over the pavement as I ran, the cold night air stinging my bare arms and ripping through the thin threads of my white scrubs. In my hurry I had left behind my jacket and my scarf.<p>

Then again, the bitter air only convinced me to keep running. I shoved past people on the walk, not daring to slow down or look behind me to see if I was being followed by Shiori`s son and his peculiar and frankly quite frightening mirror.

The crowd was packed and my head was swimming, unfocused. Tsubasa, how did I get myself into this? Did that happen or did I imagine it again. So many things were foggy, and which I was retelling the story…

I remembered the lake, the large and dark body of water that stretched on and connected to a larger body miles away. The cove where my mother told me it was dangerous to play. The dead grass under my bare feet.

When I ducked around a woman with her son in hand, I smacked right into someone at full force, sending myself flying back onto the hard pavement, narrowly avoiding being trampled by the crowd passing around me. I could feel the scrapes on my elbows from using them to break my fall, my sore behind aching as I slowly brought myself to my knees to look at my victim.  
>A boy in a green uniform that had been tattered laid on the pavement groaning, his walking stick laying a couple feet away. He looked pretty beaten and bloodied already, and I had just shoved him over!<p>

"Oh, no!" I shouted, "Oh my, I`m so sorry!" I hovered my hands over him as I kneeled at his side. I had soiled my hands—kicked an innocent when they were down! I deserved to die a thousand painful deaths, I had been thinking only of myself. Shame on me,

"You`re hurt, aren`t you? And then I had to go and knock you over—"

The boy sat up, and I was met with the what appeared to be the frightening eyes of a hardened street criminal. I instantly jumped to conclusions, had he been in a fight? Was that why he was beaten? Did he lose? What did the other guy look like?

Would he beat me? My first thought was to run again while screaming, but I scolded myself when he winced in pain. Street criminals were people too.

Hoshiko, for the love of God! You don`t even know him—stop jumping to conclusions you spooked moron!

"Jeez, can a guy get a friggin break?!" He groaned, rubbing his head as he cringed. I was afraid to touch him.

"I`m sorry, I`m so sorry!" I was even more frightened now, thinking that the kid boy could probably pulverize me at any moment if he wanted to. Or he could make me cry if he was mean enough.

Being fragile mentally was worse than being fragile physically.

"I was frightened, and I was running, and I just ran into you because I was trying to get away as fast as I could," I panted, out of breath. I lifted my hand to one of the cuts on his face which has been bleeding from what seemed to be even before I had knocked him over.

The boy`s face switched to concern as I helped him pick himself up. I retrieved his walking stick and he propped himself up with it father.

"Are you tellin' me some creep is bothering you, M'am?" His eyes hardened, and I realized he no longer seemed like a street thug but a protective older brother. I stared, bewildered at the second modern soldier I had met over the past week.

"I," I paused, looking over my shoulder, "Well I was speaking to a boy and he showed me this mirror and… Maybe I just imagined it, but I thought he was threatening me but I`m not so sure if it was him or…"

"A mirror? What did he look like?" The boy pressed now, leaning forward on his walking stick, "Did he have red hair? And some really stuffy uniform?"

His eyes were wide and he was curious now. Everyone was so damned curious about this mirror, and I was beginning to wonder if he would turn on my like Minamino had.

_How does he know…? Is Minamino... maybe he`s a thug too? _

Maybe they covet the mirror so much they`re willing to kill each other over it, like the two houses in Romeo and Juliet. Has there been a silent war going on amidst the outlying neighborhoods of Tokyo?

"Yes, but I wouldn`t go after—"

My words were interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off, and the boy glared down at his peculiar strange wrist watch.

"—Ugh, crap," He groaned, straightening him on his walking stick,

"Listen, you better get out of here. He`s coming now."

I felt every hair on my head stand a little, static running throughout my body. I was a nightmare right now, and unsure of whether I had crossed realities or not. Maybe I was asleep at home in bed right now.

No, I was too cold to be asleep.

"You should go too," I was panicking now, gripping the boys arm, "Please, you`re hurt. Don`t worry about him now,"

"I told you to get out of here!" He shouted, drawing the attention of people around us on the street. I withdrew my hand, startled by his shouting.

"I`ll be fine. Go." His brown eyes turned soft and he smiled confidently now, which put me off. He was pretending, but he was too badly beaten.

This boy was different from Minamino, though. His entire demeanor wasn`t nearly as secretive. It was honest. Minamino was… a mystery, and clearly he had plenty of motives. This boy was very forward and honest. He didn`t play with my words, didn`t try to make me stay and get information from me. My safety was his concern….

I nodded, and repressing my urge to beg him to come with me, I turned and sprinted for the train station, not looking back.

* * *

><p>I swiped my ID card through the reader so that it could identify that I was a student I had thankfully left in my pants pocket along with my wallet. I was relieved to hear the sliding doors lock behind me, home and safe once again. I put my hands to my knees and sunk to the floor of the lobby, panting, crying.<p>

I was eyed by a couple of students sitting on the sofas of the first floor lounge as I sniffled and shivered from the lack of body heat I had maintained during the transit back to my neighborhood.

I was a broken swan on the edge of the lake, feather ruffled up from flying for so long. I scraped myself together and carried myself to the elevator, where I took it to the seventh floor. I wandered the long hallway to my apartment, flinching at every noise on my way there. People coming and going, laughter and loud music coming from some rooms. I was one more swipe from being inside the sanctuary of my apartment, and I could hardly keep my hand from shaking as I fumbled to shove the key into the lock. Once I had gotten it in, I turned it to the left and felt the relief as it clicked open, letting me press the handle down and enter the neat and cozy little apartment.

I slid inside and slammed the door shut behind me, pressing the lock down on the knob and leaning against it, closing my eyes momentarily. Safe inside my palace walls, up in my castle in the sky.

Sleeping Beauty stared at me from the kitchen table where she sat, slumped in her chair. Her tired eyes looked heavy and purple, but she managed to lift them to me in wavering concern.

"You okay over there?" She drawled, leaning her head into her hand as she propped herself up on the table.

Gulping a breath of air, I nodded, rubbing my arms for friction based heat as I stepped over to the knit blanket that was draped over the arm of the sofa. I wrapped myself in it and sunk into the cushions. The glow of the TV was the only source of light aside from the single bulb that hung over the table Ai was seated at. I looked at the coffee table and noticed her books were sitting out and open, covering the surface and part of the carpet surrounding.

"What are you doing over there?" I asked, trying to take my mind of my problem for a moment. Ai frowned, standing from the table and walking over to the arm chair across from me,

"Well I was going to make a pizza for dinner but I`m so tired that I ended up being so tired that I poured tea on it and ruined it. So I sat down to have a moment of silence." She collapsed into the chair, curling into a ball and reaching for the remote.

"You look like you`ve seen hell too. Was work that bad? Where`s your jacket, it`s freezing. I know because I had to bust out the space heater."

"I was going to say, you`ve been outside?" I chuckled, and she gave me a sour look as she flipped the channels.

"I went to class the same time you did, Chiba." Her monotone was soothing as I leaned back into the cushions.

"What`s wrong?" She asked, keeping the volume on low so that she could hear me over the sitcom she was watching. I shook my head from side to side with my eyes closed.

"You want to talk my ear off every time I step foot outside my room and then even if I don`t. You friggin talk to me when I`m not even home. You talk to me when I`m trying to sleep and my door is closed but now you got nothing to say. What`s wrong?" She reiterated and I curled my feet up, pulling my knees to my chest as I covered the remainder of my body completely in the cozy knit blanket.

"Well maybe now that you`re quiet, I`ll actually be able to study." She clicked the television off and reached over to the table and pulled a heavy text book up into her lap. I watched her eyes scan the page as if she were in a sort of trance. A couple minutes passed between us as she read.  
>Finally, as the silence reached it`s peak, I parted my lips and finally found my words,<p>

"Do you know anything about a gang war going on right now in the area?"  
>Ai rolled her eyes to the ceiling and slammed her text book shut as dramatically as possible before glaring at me from her seat, and I know it was because of the comment she had made earlier.<p>

"No, I haven`t heard anything. Why?"

She shifted so that she was leaning forward in the chair,

"Is some gangster mutt messing with you Hoshiko? You`re a pure bread, don`t let any of those street punks mess with you, okay? You need me to walk you to work?"

I shook my head,

"No, there was a boy at work just before I left… and he had this magic mirror and it shone so brightly and in my head I heard this voice—literally inside of my head his mirror spoke to me! He was holding it in his hand and it just started going beserk and, and I think it was the mirror trying to talk to me because I tried to say it wasn`t real!"

Ai groaned, pulling the book back open to the page she had been on,

"I _actually_ expected you to tell me something."

"No, no I`m being serious! When I was running to the train station I ran into this boy that was all cut up and bruised like he`d been in a terrible fight, and when I told him why I was running—he asked me about the mirror! I think there`s some sort of conflict going on where two groups are fighting over this magic mirror…" I trailed off as Ai continued to read and ignore me,

"Ai, I`m not joking… I think this mirror might be able to grant wishes and they`re fighting over possession of it. Do you know what that means?!"

"That I need to get a hold of this magic mirror and wish for an A on this quiz tomorrow."

"No, you can`t wish on this mirror, or it will take your life! Any way the boy that I ran into had some sort of watch and it could tell when the boy with the mirror was near by and so the thug guy told me to run away and go home so that he could take care of mirror boy for me but—but I wonder if he succeeded because he looked so tired and beaten up . . ."  
>Speaking of tired and beaten, Ai had been staring at the couch I had been sitting on for a dead look in her eye the entire time I had been speaking, and I trailed my words as I watched her back now, cautiously.<p>

"Ai?" I asked. When there was no response, I clambered to my feet to touch her shoulder, but she fell back into the chair, blacking out before I could do so. I panicked, pulling her up from her slumped position and started shaking her.

After a brief moment, her purple eye lids blinked open slowly, dark eyes searching the ceiling as she gathered her bearings.

"Again?" She groaned, which didn`t help my already increasing concern for her health.

"Maybe some sleep would help you a little with your classes?" I asked her, and she shook her head at me, giving me an incredulous look. But I noticed her head lulled side to side on its own a little every time she moved, and she hadn`t really recovered from blacking out.

Ai being unconscious and leaving me alone in the room for even the short amount of time that she wasn`t awake and present made me nervous all over again, and I took the opportunity to ask,  
>"Do you think we could have a sleepover in the living room? I`m kind of freaked out after what happened today."<p>

"I can`t… I have to study…" She groaned, and I frowned as I watched her eyes slowly close once more.

I stood and hooked the girl`s arm around my neck and slowly trudged over the carpet pf the living room and into her own room where I laid her down on her bed, tucking her in tightly like my mother used to do to me on cold winter nights when I was too tired to snuggle into the sheets myself.

I then ventured back to my own room to retrieve my own pillow. I stopped to stare at the unfinished letter I had left on my desk from a couple days earlier when I had stayed up all night to write it. And I was there lecturing Ai on how she should get more sleep. I quickly changed out of my scrubs and into some cozy pajamas. On my way back through the lounge, I checked the door again to make sure that it was secured and dared to look out of the peep hole to make sure there was nothing going on in the hallways outside. Of course, it would be impossible for Minamino to get into my apartment without having an ID for the residence hall.

I calmed myself and flipped the lights off, then grabbed the blanket from the sofa and snuck back into Ai`s bedroom, where I crawled up next to her, curling up over the bed spread and wrapping myself in the warm, sweater-like cover.

Ai would probably kill me for letting her sleep like this, but I was cold and tired and needed to sleep too and would never get the chance if I was left alone.

Not after hearing that frightening voice in my head.

* * *

><p>"That looks very pretty, Hoshiko, thank you."<p>

I looked up at Shiori as she laid back on her pillow, her arms laid in front of her so that I could paint her nails with the soft, lavender color I had brought her. I as careful to avoid painting her ring finger so that the nurses could check it, to ensure her blood was flowing to her fingertips.

Picking up the cloth from the bowl of cold water it was sitting in, I wiped the sweat from her face. Her eyes were half lidded, and her exhaustion had never looked so severe before. I felt a lump form in my chest, guilt.

When I went to retrieve my items, I noticed Shiori`s bed was empty and made up for the next patient to be welcomed into the intensive care unit.

I had done some snooping, and found that she had been moved to a private suite of her own on the fifth floor. I felt my heart sink upon hearing she had her own suite. This meant that her illness was only growing worse and her time was becoming limited. The staff`s silent warning that the patient and their family may want more privacy.

I wondered if her son had told her something about the other night. I had retrieved my scarf and jacket from the side table the very next day, noticing that he didn`t take them with him. Not that I assumed he was a thief. . .

But then again he admitted to stealing that mirror. Sometimes I wondered if I was just sleepy and had made the whole thing up. But no, it was all too real. I even had the scrapes on my elbows from a few nights ago. Three days had passed and I had managed to avoid the young Minamino boy and any gang activity.

Ai had been so kind as to walk me to the train station after we were released from afternoon classes. She`d even let me sleep in her bed with her for the remainder of the week which is far more than I could have even asked for. For a random roommate she was very good to me, and I would have never actually expected her to welcome my friendship with the way I had initiated our first conversation.

Especially after knowing how closed off the girl could be. She was so funny and intelligent even with her dry sense of humor and low tolerance for my nonsense. I was lucky to have someone like that to keep my life in focus when I was carrying myself away on a regular basis.

"I can`t paint my own fingernails to save my life, but I can paint others." I laughed as I returned the rag to the bowl of water before stepping to the other side of the bed to paint her other hand.

I tried not to stare too intently at the scars covering the backs of Shiori`s hands and up her arms. My first thought that maybe they were self inflicted, and that she had put herself in the hospital. But upon getting to know her, I knew it couldn`t be true. Shiori seemed far too happy to suffer that way. If she did, she truly hid it well. I figured the scars were from an accident. They looked old and faded, still they looked aggravated. They ravaged the already fair skin on her hands with a pure white, lightening bolt lines running every which way, like her hands had shoved clear through a glass panel.

"Well in a little while I`ll paint yours. I`m actually feeling much better today."

Yes, Shiori said that every day. That she was feeling much better.

"Why don`t you try to eat something if you`re feeling better?" I asked, a question I`m sure she had anticipated by now. But she always responded,

"That`s alright, I have no appetite right now."

I felt myself biting my words back, the urge to make her ear something. The circles around Shiori`s eyes disheartened me and I was reminded of Ai, and whether she had eaten anything that day.

I glanced to the clock, noting that the afternoon was getting late, and Shuichi would be stopping by for visiting hours soon. I planned on avoiding him at any cost, and I was playing with fire visiting the woman at all. But I couldn`t just abruptly stop seeing her. It was hard enough seeing her and seeing her sick. Not seeing her at all. . .

My eyes wandered to the window, the wind shaking the trees outside. Tall buildings. A nearby shopping district. Maybe Ai and I could go on a trip into the city soon. Once school slowed down for her. . .

But I knew that wouldn`t happen.

I sunk my elbows into the mattress and rested my head amongst my forearms for a brief moment. I was tired, working late hours and then not sleeping comfortably in a foreign bed, my head filled with more worries than usual. I closed my eyes, feeling Shiori`s hand on the back of my head, smoothing my hair in a soothing, rhythmic motion. She was so naturally a mother.

"Your hair is so fine, but there`s so much of it." Her voice was gentle and soft, like an angel, "It reminds me of Shuuichi. When he was smaller he would hate when I would try to touch his hair. He was very particular about doing things himself,"

She laughed quietly to herself, "It was so cute. He was always trying to be so grown up when he clearly had no idea how to function without me."

I kept my face pressed into the blankets. Your son is a maniac, I thought to myself. I was the disheartened princess on the queen`s throne, weeping silently.  
>Her silver knight was not a faithful soldier at all. He was cold and strange, from a different kingdom altogether.<br>Queen, fair Queen, I thought to myself, as you lie on your throne I kneel before you keeping secrets.

But these were things that perhaps she wouldn`t want to hear. Like Ai, Shiori would simply assume I was making it up like one of my stories. Behind my eyelids, I grew exhausted of thinking of ways to explain to the woman what had happened between me and her son. I felt myself sinking into the soft cushiony throne, my queen tracing her featherweight hand down the back of my head, and past the base of my neck.

Under the light of the silver moon, below the water Tsubasa I dreamed that you were polishing a silver blade to battle the troubled warrior with. No blood shed, you planned to disarm him. You remained a prince without a single grief laid on your strong shoulders. You battled many foes without slaying a soul. A prince of all good things, lost from this kingdom on land, below the golden sun.

Your night wings are black and tainted from the pain, every movement is agony yet you fly to me and watch over me in my sleep. You are so precious to me. You are so precious to me. You are so precious. . .

I can feel you all around, in the space surrounding me. I can hear your voice singing me lullabies even in my sleep. You have the most beautiful voice. Here in my dreams I reside in a palace built on your songs and I float on every note. I feel you comb my hair, your hand on my shoulder. . .

I shoot up, straight, feeling an unfamiliar grip—but it wasn`t unfamiliar.

"Oh, she`s awake," I`m staring at Shiori, but it is not her hand. I am frightened, not daring to look behind me.

"Look, Hoshiko, Shuuichi`s brought a friend today." Shiori smiles, forcing her teeth to show, and I see crows feet in addition to the fine lines framing her tired eyes.

I straighten, feeling the hand disappear as I turn to see the younger Minamino—his face solemn as he stared down at my pensive stare.

Behind him was the boy that I had knocked over in the street! But how is he here, standing so calmly with the younger Minamino?

They weren`t enemies, they were working _together_.

"Hello." I greeted coldly, locking eyes with the darker haired boy behind Minamino. He stared at me with a nervous, off handed grin. His joy was discreetly misplaced, but the red head remained ever in character.

"Good afternoon, Chiba," Minamino smiled down at me.

"Mhmm." I responded sleepily, yawning into my elbow as I peaked over at Shiori, who was nibbling on a slice of apple. So she`d mustered some sort of appetite. I glanced over my shoulder, wondering if it was by choice or if her son had coerced her into eating. He seemed like the type that would be excellent at manipulating others.

"I was jealous of your little cat nap. You looked so peaceful." Shiori smiled, her exhaustion becoming more evident as I tempted her with the inviting image of a nap. She placed the apple slice she`s been working on back on the plate.

"Shuuichi, I really don`t think I can eat these at the moment." She frowned, "Maybe a little bit later."

Minamino extended his arm over me and retrieved the plate, setting it on the bedside table.  
>"I understand, Mother. You should rest for a while. We`ll leave you and run to the cafeteria. I`m sure Chiba-san is getting hungry." I bristled at the sound of my name coming from his lips, the formality of the way addressed me was so different from how his mother addressed me, and I noticed her eyes flutter over his image in so much awe that it made me physically ill. Shiori patted my hand before reclining back onto her pillows,<p>

"Get a good rest tonight, dear, you look so tired." I forced a little laugh to humor her. She smiled and closed her eyes, lashes kissing her pale skin as they closed. I stood from the seat by her bed, turning to the boys as I wrapped myself tightly in my jacket, eyes darting back and forth between them.

They stepped aside and I hurriedly made my way past them and into the hallway, looking over my shoulder as Minamino shut the door to the private suite behind him and his friend.

"What do you want?" I tried to keep my voice from shaking, but it was evident that I was trembling with fear. I had to hold myself together to keep from visibly shaking.

"This isn`t a suitable place to speak with you." Minamino stepped towards me in the hallways, and I pressed my back to the wall in order to distance myself as best as possible from him.

"I don`t have any interest in speaking with you, if you don`t mind." I shuffled towards the boy that needed a walking stick the other night, assuming he was the weaker of the two due to the disadvantage I had met him on. At least I knew that I could knock him over if I hit him at full force.

"Hey—" He started, "He`s not going to hurt you—" His words cut off when I gave him a distrustful look as well. His lips pressed together in a tight line before a look of realization dawned on his face.

"I guess you don`t have any reason to trust my word either, huh?"

"We`re headed for the rooftop." Minamino glanced skeptically around the hallway, nearly empty of hospital personnel,

"Urameshi and I are not partners if that`s what you`re concerned about. I was about it explain to him why I have your _mirror_. You can choose if you want to follow." He turned on the end of his phrase, and I watched his hair billow behind him from the movement as he quickly paced for the stairwell.

The other boy, Urameshi, eyed him as he walked off before turning to me,

"Hoshiko—that`s your name, right?"

I stared in response, still wound up tightly around myself.

"My name is Urameshi Yusuke. I`m a detective for the Reikai."

The Reikai. I`d heard Minamino utter the word before when we`d first met and had stepped off the elevator. He had used it in reference to my moon kingdom.

"Reikai," I repeated slowly. Everything surrounding Minamino seemed to be like a storybook, one with pop up pictures that I kept stumbling over.

"_The Spirit World_," I had read about it before in my books, "A detective? How does that even work?"

Urameshi Yusuke glanced at one of the nurses who had busied herself with pushing an empty stretcher down to the OR past us. His eyes wandered farther down the hall to where Minamino had disappeared, and stepped closer to me, keeping his voice low.

"Kurama told me you were a psychic. He told me that you knew about the artifact. The mirror wasn`t the only thing he stole. I was wondering. . . if you knew where I could find the third item?"

I was drawing a blank, staring into hopeful and curious brown eyes. I looked to his cheek where a bandage concealed one of the scrapes that was fresh on his face a few days ago.

"I know he scared you but there`s something about this guy. . . he ain`t all bad. I think you just got off to a rough start."

I felt my body relax the more Urameshi spoke to me. He had an honest demeanor about him, nothing wicked like I had assumed from his acquaintance with Minamino. Or, . . . _Kurama_?

"I told him I made it up." I stated, "It was an old story."

"Old story?" A dense, black eyebrow raised itself as his tone of voice turned upwards in question,

"He didn`t seem to think it was just some story. He told me you knew what the penalty of using that mirror is. He asked me if he could wait for just a few days so that he could use it, said he`d turn himself in."

"Listen, I`ve got work to do." I raised my voice, straightening. I didn`t have time to play games with a couple of strange boys. I stepped out from under Urameshi Yusuke and stared at him for a moment, watching as his face changed from questioning to . . . sorry, almost, before I turned and made my way for the break room.

The break room was where I went when I had something important to study for. I stared at the text book on the table as I stuffed my face with snack crackers from the vending machine.

I think I`m done with make believe for a while, I thought to myself as I skimmed the page of the history book. I supposed it wasn`t my imagination that prevented me from drifting from the words on the page. It was that along with my complete lack of self discipline.

The rhythm of my chewing was the medium allowing me to concentrate for the short amount of time. I needed to finish this chapter before I went to bed.

I knew if I went home that I would just lie in bed or watch television. The hospital was where I could concentrate, clear my thoughts.

I turned another page, reaching into the bag of crackers simultaneously as I did so.

The penalty of using the mirror. Those boys thought that mirror was worth something. It was a chilcren`s story for crying out loud. . . I knew that I was capable of talking in circles but everyone knew that I was just making it up.

The third item. . . I didn`t realize that there were three items—probably because I hadn`t made them up. As much as I wanted to believe there was physical connection to the daydreams I had spun and reality, I knew. . .

Said he`d turn himself in after a few days. Why wait? I glanced to the calendar on the wall, a large picture of two kittens sitting in a basket. Was it the date? My eyes scanned the days of the week, landing on Thursday, the twenty third of October. I stuffed another cracker in my mouth, chewing thoughtfully and then nearly choking on the food in my mouth when Harada burst into the room, breathless with a panicked look.

"Chiba—the patient in 501—"

My eyes stopped on the words that had been conveniently hand written under the date.

The Harvest Moon.

"She`s in unstable condition!"

_The penalty of using that mirror. . . _

I recalled the voice of the object, echoing through my mind and I felt the hairs on my head bristle and stand on end. I shoved away from the table and past Harada, making my way down the hall. I was headed for the stair well, climbing until I reached the last door—leading to the roof. _The penalty is your life. _Minamino wanted to use the mirror to rescue his mother from her illness and he was willing to give his life for her.

People act strangely when they`re desperate. How could I have been so foolish?

I denied the mirror was real, denied my own imagination because of the way others responded to me. I was not delusional. I was sane. I knew what I was seeing, what I was hearing. The mirror was real, and coincidence or not. . .

Legs on fire and my breath ragged, I swung the door open and felt the air hit me full force, blowing my hair into my face and ruffling it into disorder.

Static was crackling through the air and I thought I was witnessing a lightening strike under the clearest evening in October, below a large, yellow moon. Two boys were crouched below, over the mirror that was emanating its light once again. I felt chills running throughout my bloodstream as I watched the two wince as if they were in pain, life being sucked from their bodies.

Life. It really was the penalty.

Their séance ended shortly after the light dimmed, and I watched the two slump to the roof lifelessly. Dead, they were dead. I stumbled forward, the sound of my own scream deafening me. I heard nothing, silence as I hovered above the two of them, the mirror glinting in the moonlight, as if it was daring me to reach out and touch it, take advantage of its powers.

I curled my fingers back, stiffening in response to the aura it was giving off. A satisfied sort of air.

I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me, and turned to the red head, who`s eyes were blinking open sleepily before snapping to and widening in disbelief. He was alive. I clamored to my feet, stumbling back as he managed to find his own footing.

Sweat rolled down his face, green eyes unbelieving and meeting mine in shock as I felt my lips trembling to ask a question. There was no time—Minamino ran past me to make his way for the stairs, shouting something about his mother.

". . . Ouch."

I turned back to the mirror and Urameshi Yusuke to find him propping to his elbows, rubbing the redness on his face from being pressed into the tiles of the rooftop.

"I`m still alive!" He drew the hand back and looked at it, "It really worked!"

I watched him sit up, laughing, "It worked!"

"You idiots!" I finally found my voice, and Urameshi Yusuke snapped in the direction of it, surprised to see me standing there in my scrubs.

"Why on Earth would you offer up your life for some boy you just met anyway?" I snarled, stepping closer as he scratched the back of his head.

"I just couldn`t help but interfere. . . under the circumstances. . . " Brown eyes looked to the floor as he spoke.

Maybe I as angry because what they had attempted was supposed to be life threatening.

Unless I was irritated that my cranes hadn`t cut it, that I hadn`t really offered anything important on behalf of Minamino Shiori.

"Wonder how his mother is?" He took the words from my thoughts, picking up the mirror from the ground. I watched as it glinted again in the moonlight.

A premonition.

_There are two other artifacts_.

* * *

><p>...<em>Thank you,<em>

_**owlloveyou, pinkycakey, Samcatthorne, Guest, Sarah, & those of you who have followed. **_


	3. Capitolo Tre

_I stared at my reflection in the mirror, holding it in my hand. I felt a charge, energy in the object and knew it was nothing compared to the compact mirrors I carried with me. There was no mistaking that this was the mirror Tsubasa had described time and time again. I tilted the mirror in my hands, flipping it upside down to admire its unique engraving on the back._

_Here I was, under the full moon, with the mirror in hand. I began to shake a little, trembling at the thought. What if I wished for Tsubasa`s wings now. . . would I become a blue fish now, with no ocean to live? No moon kingdom to dwell happily in. No gentle princess to guide me. I would be separated from my family, friends, and Ai. . . _

_Was all of it a sad excuse. I was just too selfish to save the one I loved. I felt my grip tightening on the mirror. It took half of Yusuke and Kurama`s life energy to cure Shiori. I couldn`t ask anyone to do that for me. Half their life. . . _

"_Easy there," The dreadful object was pried from my wavering hands as stood, contemplating suicide from the life I currently lived. _

_Urameshi watched me nervously, as if I would fall apart before him and I wasn`t so sure that I wouldn`t. I held myself together, folding myself in my arms. _

_I felt my eyes stinging with tears now, "And I can`t bring myself to make the sacrifice to use it." _

"_I`m afraid I couldn`t let you do that anyway." He watched me with caution as he shoved the mirror into the trouser pocket of his uniform, _

"_I have some questions for you."_

* * *

><p>eyelet spring<p>

* * *

><p>"Hurry up, Hoshiko. I need to get there early to look over notes." Ai`s monotone echoed in the corridor as I hurriedly unlocked my mail box. I lifted myself onto my tip toes and slipped the sealed envelope into the box before shutting the door and securing it with my keys.<p>

"Who are you writing to?" She asked as I caught up to her, walking through the entrance to the residence hall and onto the path leading to the front gates of Seien Girl`s High.

"Old friend." I smiled, swinging my school bag at my waist as I skipped alongside her, trying to keep up with her long, quick strides.

"I guess it isn`t enough to talk my ears off." She drawled, picking some lint off of the knee of her navy skirt while we waited at the stop light.

"I love talking your ears off." I stopped, looking at her in concern.

"I`m not _jealous_." She snorted as she punched the button couple more times impatiently, eager to get to the lecture hall. There was no hope of the light changing soon enough for her, and I noticed the sneer she made when she looked back over her shoulder and past me.

I looked as well and saw another girl leaving our building. Chou. She was in the class above me with Ai.

She raised her hand and waved at us as she approached the lights signaling for us to wait for her. Her dark brown curls bounced behind her as she ran with her smile wide so that her perfectly bright teeth flashed under the sun. I felt warmth rise inside of my chest and I was excited to see a friendly face.

Unfortunately, the light changed and Ai`s hand was immediately pulling at my arm to drag me over the crosswalk as it signaled that there were ten seconds left to make it across. We left the girl to wait for the next break in traffic.

"I like Chou," I mumbled, looking back as we kept walking with a frown on my face.

"The other day she asked me about my family and how work was going and she just let me talk for half an hour during lunch."

"I`m sure she did." Ai snapped, irked as her pace noticeably quickened. She was clearly irritated. I paused, not sure if I should carry on

"She`s just a good listener you know?" I laughed nervously, never having seen Ai behave this way. Usually when I talked to Ai she at least pretended that she was listening or made up a snide comment to reply with if what I was telling her seemed extremely nonsensical.

"Anyway maybe we could have lunch on our break today?" I asked as we neared the front walk to the lecture hall. Ai was still tuning me out now, and I stopped on the walk, wondering if it was something that I had said that was bothering her.

She stopped a few feet later when she noticed and turned around with a bewildered look on her face before asking,

"What? Huh?"

"I was asking you about lunch. . . ?" My voice was small, timid now that I had done something wrong.

"Oh." Her face changed completely now, turning back to its usual ambivalent look.

"I thought you were still talking about your stupid girl crush. Yeah, sure."

"Hey!" I shouted after her as she headed into the lecture hall. I followed behind with a scowl on my face.

_I`d never seen her behave this way_. . .

I had long forgotten about it by the time I laid in bed next to Ai that night, curled up in my own blankets, a little ball at her side. She was facing the opposite direction that I was, towards the door while I looked out the window. I watched the waning of the moon every night now since the incident with Minamino and Urameshi. I had not heard from either over the past couple of days and Shiori had been discharged before I could work a shift at the hospital again.

"Are you still up Ai?" I whispered in the dark, blinking up at the slightly faded moon.

"Hmm. . . " She groaned quietly, tightening her grip on her comforter. Enough of a response for me, I supposed. I shifted, stretching and readjusting so that I was facing her now and on my side.

"I had a strange dream last night," I told her, "I don`t know if it was even a story that Tsubasa had told me about. I don`t remember if I made it up or not."

Ai remained still, and I couldn`t tell if she was listening or not. It seemed as if it had only been minutes ago that she had turned the light out. Perhaps she was truly that exhausted from studying.

"I woke up on the shore. . . and I swore that I could feel the sand in my dream. . . "

"Hoshiko," Ai interrupted with a yawn. She rolled over onto her side to face me and I looked into dark, tired eyes.

"Listen, there`s something I need to tell you." She raked the long strands of black hair as she adjusted her head on the pillow. I paused, forgetting all about what I had been trying to tell her.

"I know about your dream." She blinked at me with a completely serious face, "Chou told me about it in organic chemistry today."

"Oh." I could feel my eyes widening. "She`s always so interested, you know? I think—"

"I don`t think it would be a good idea to tell her about them anymore. . . " Her words running into mine like a train going full speed into a wall. I stuttered to a stop and felt my body tighten in defense of myself

"What do you mean?" I heard my voice getting stuck in my throat. Ai`s eyes blinked shut slowly and I could tell she had been half asleep when I had started speaking to her. Nocturnal eyes opened once more and she had dawned a much more serious, awake face. I was startled, concerned now.

"Chou doesn`t have any good intentions for you or your stories. She doesn`t know how to keep them to herself either—"  
>"Oh that`s okay," I smiled, trying not to giggle to myself, "I don`t really mind if she tells other people about them—"<p>

"But she`s not telling them because she`s interested in them." I was cut off again, confused.  
>"What do you mean?" I was baffled, and I could feel my face flushing in embarrassment. I knew now where this was going,<p>

"Oh, no, she wouldn`t. . . "

"Yes, Hoshiko, she would. I caught her in chem today delivering the entire monologue to Nakano."

"They laughed at me?" I tried to keep the saltwater from leaking down my face in front of my roommate, but the harder I pushed it down the more it seemed to build up in the corners. I felt a single streak run down my face in the dark. I prayed she didn`t notice, though it was evident in my voice.

"No." Her voice was louder now as she reached for the box of tissues on the shelf above the bed, pulling two from the top and shoving them into my running nose.

"I didn`t let them."

I took the tissues from her, and she drew her hand back and replaced the box to the shelf as I blew the snot into the thin material, wiping at the tears in my eyes. I held onto them, in case I would find myself in tears again. We fell into silence for a few seconds before I built up the courage to ask her,  
>"Are you embarrassed?"<p>

The girl had been nodding off again, but her eyes shot open at this before directing the offended look at me,

"No, of course not. Just don`t trust her again, okay?"

"Okay." I murmured, yawning into my elbow as I rolled onto my side, away from her. I was embarrassed for her. Ai stood up for me in front of her class to two of the more substantially popular girls and had probably done so without hesitation.

I wanted to cry harder, weep for the luck that had been bestowed upon me that was the close relationship I found with my roommate, but feared she would find it strange. I calmed myself down, taking deep breathes and finding a soothing rhythm in them.

Forget them, is what my mother would say if she knew, you can`t help it`s always spring time in your mind.

Spring time in my mind, I thought, I feel it. Flowers growing from the darkest corners of my thoughts, the sad notions that bloom with the nightshade and the thorns of the roses pricking me until I weep. Beautiful and full of pain.

But with soft petals at my feet, I stepped into the valley where the thorns dared not to go. I descended into the cool, smooth petals, a deep pink, almost red. I`d once heard there was a specific bread of rose that only grew in a chateau in France. Fuchsia in color and cultivated from only the most specific seeds. . .

I carried my bridal crown on my head, stacked with silver laurels and diamonds like a princess, my veil trailing behind me, heavy. White and pristine, it trailed behind me though I was not dressed in anything but a thin slip and a petticoat of tulle and eyelet lace. I clashed with the fuchsia pedals and walking was growing wearisome from having to pull my veil behind me.

I felt the hairs on my head snapping and breaking off, and I stopped abruptly upon seeing the thin, gleaming strands float to the ground. Gasping, I reached for my head and yanked the laurels from my hair, tugging on them to free myself from the heavy veil. A tug wasn`t doing it, and I tugged harder. I felt the skin standing up on my head and I cried out in pain, sinking to my knees and burying my face in the petals so that I could hide my face as I sobbed in desperation. I was stranded by my own bridal crown.

"Oh, someone, help me," My cry was muffled as I fell apart on the floor of the valley encased in tall trees. Surely no one would find me.

I felt the dirt and the hard, cold earth below the layer of petals. Lying wait to welcome me into its uncaring embrace. Would I decompose there in my bed of petals, tangled in my bridal veil?

Oh, please, it can`t end this way. . .

When the weight became almost completely unbearable—it suddenly slacked, and I felt the weight ease from crushing me. I heard footsteps as the veil was gathered by someone drawing nearer.

Once I was able to lift my head, I did so and looked to where the trees parted for the meadow and saw another figure, tall and slim, in a white petticoat as well. My veil gathered in her arms, I was relieved to see her, raven hair braided into a crown encircling her head. She had never looked more beautiful in the evening light. I was saved once more by Ai. The stars above would sing the hallelujah chorus and the roses would no longer need to stitch a shroud for my corpse.

Gentle, slender fingers combed the laurels from my hair and I instantly felt the release, sighing as it pulled my chignon out along with it, letting loose curls unravel onto my shoulders.

I lifted my head to speak to her, looking up at her pale face. Long lashes stared down at the crown in her lap as she kneeled in front of me. She wrapped the veil around itself a couple of times, not saying anything at all to me. Tossing the laurels to the ground, she stood and grabbed my arm, pulling me farther from it and out of the way before taking her bare foot and stomping down on the crown. I cringed as she instantly shrieked out in pain, the sharp silver edges cutting into her foot as the crown snapped underneath her.

I saw droplets of blood as she retracted her foot only to stomp on it again.

". . . " Hands flying to my throat, I had lost my voice—and Ai was only forcing herself to stomp the laurels into pieces. Her blood soiling the white veil attached and in her other arm.

Stop, stop, I pleaded silently, trying to pull her away. I yanked as hard as I could but Ai was determined to snuff out the wicked crown`s powers. I gripped tightly on her arm as she thrashed until she had exhausted herself and her pain tolerance, throwing petals into the air, sending them into a frenzy as she continued to annihilate the laurels. She limped back towards me, using her arm to wipe tears stinging at her eyes. I watched her grit her teeth tightly as her eyebrows knit together. She silenced her groans of pain to inhale sharply before spitting acutely onto the broken crown.

She straightened then, freezing like a deer in the headlights, looking around us pensively before twitching in my direction. She looked back to where the crown laid amongst the bloodied petals, and stared as if it would put itself back together right then and there.

And then I noticed it, the petals that had been stained with blood fading and shriveling as if they had their life drawn from them.

"We should get out of here, now," Her voice was hoarse from the shrieking, and I had no way of responding with my muted voice. Ai pulled me along, running quickly for someone with such a terrible injury. Veil trailing behind us the entire way, we reached the edge of the forest as the petals at our very feet turned as well.

"No!" Ai echoed through the meadow and the woods as I saw the leaves on the trees shriveling. A cold chill brushed over my bare arms and I shivered, my stomach turning.

And just as soon as she had reached for me again, she paused, arms hovering over me for a second before her hands rested themselves on my shoulders. She looked shocked, frightened maybe. I didn`t understand why she had frozen still, staring at me with her nearly black eyes. It wasn`t until I looked down and finally found my voice that I knew why. Screams ripped through my vocal chords as I saw the blood staining Ai`s petticoat of eyelet lace and tulle, the tip of black steel poking out just below her chest.

My hands flew to my mouth, shocked by the sudden sound. I soon lifted them from my lips to catch Ai`s collapsing frame in my arms. I could feel her blood pouring out and onto me.

_Her soul is mine._

I froze, staring past Ai, seeing nothing there. The voice came from no where, unless. . .

The black blade was still stuck in her back. I struggled to get an arm free, trying to decide whether I should pull it out. No, no they always say not to pull it out in the movies don`t they? Or do they?

"Ai, Ai can you hear me?" Her head was pressed into my chest, and I could hear her struggling for air.  
>"Ai, please stay with me, please," I cried, picking up her hair and lifting it from her neck. She collapsed completely, lying on her side on the ground and I pulled her head into my lap, leaning over her as I washed her hair with my frantic tears.<p>

"What`s happening to us?" I whimpered, stroking the side of her face, watching her eyes grow colder and her stare looking farther away as she bled out on the ground with the dark sword in her back. I quivered in my damp clothes, lost. I laid my head back down, my arms encircling her head as it laid lifelessly in my lap.

The sun was long past setting in the valley and I was alone with another force. I knew I should run far away like Ai had said, but I wouldn`t leave her body. This was only a dream, I told myself, this could only be a dream. Ai would never have acted so strange. . .

But the voice, it was so similar to the mirror. But that was silly. The mirror. . . they couldn`t possibly have anything to do with each other.

Footsteps fell before me and I heard a malignant chuckle ring through the air as the wind rustled the branches of the dying trees around me.

_Look at your precious friend now. _

I whimpered, frightened. I opened my eyes, pulling my head up to get a better look at Ai. Her eyes were still wide open, soulless and as cold as the earth I was kneeled on.

And then her lips. . . twitched, parted, and I could see her teeth. Black eyes turned, flickered something strange behind them, sparking them to a bright amber.

_You will both be my slaves. My first order is for her to kill you. _

I looked up from Ai`s face and to the presence before me, a shadow with a leering and snide air surrounding him. He reached forward, wrapping his fingers around the sword in Ai`s back and yanking roughly from her. I could hear the sound of her flesh ripping and she shrieked again in response as I hovered worriedly over her, nausea consuming me.

"Oh, no!" My hands flew to comfort her and pull her close, but she had reached out and grabbed both of my wrists. I froze, scared and unsure if thrashing free would harm her. Her eyes were livid and her mouth was open. I noticed her canines had sharpened and she was bearing them at me.

_Look into her eyes. _

"No!" I shouted, staring at the floor and shoving back at her.

"I won`t!" I cried,

"Give her soul back, please," I pleaded, "Give her back!"

_Look at her._

I didn`t form words, only sobs fell out. I lifted my eyes to my beloved roommate and my sight focused on the light placed directly in the middle of her forehead. Like a third eye.

Blinding, an instant migraine. I was blacking out!

"Hoshiko!" Ai shouted, shaking me, and I thrashed now out of pure fear for my life. The light was so bright and I was staring right into it.

"Please come back!" I shouted, words barely recognizable with my sobs clouding them.

"I`m right here!" She shouted back, shaking me harder. I could feel the earth under me turn soft, like a pillow and I was lying on a bed, the lamp on the shelf above shining in my face.

Ai was _okay_.

_I _was okay.

I stopped and unclenched my fingers from around her arms before bursting into another onset of joyous tears. I lunged, wrapping my arms around her neck and tackling her to the floor.

"I`m sorry!" I had been crying so hard that my breath was catching and I was hiccupping for air as hard as I could, trying to take a steady breath.

"Breath!" Ai`s eyes were wide with concern as she frantically tried to unwrap my arms from her in the most gentle way she could.

I choked, pounding my chest with my fist,

"—Sorry, my dream—they were trying to take you soul—" My breathing gradually slowed, and I felt my bones aching from our tumble to the carpet.

Ai blinked at me with a defined brow raised curiously before letting it collapse as she shook with laughter. The girl stood, readjusting the pillows on her bed and untangling the sheets from one another.

"Well you don`t have to worry, because I hardly have a soul."  
>I stood to help her, pouting slightly. Ai`s dry sense of humor wasn`t always what I needed to hear. She reached over and took the box of tissues from her shelf and just handed them over to me. I probably needed them more than she did.<p>

"I`m glad you`re not a monster." I said as I plucked the tissues from the box, soiling one by one with more snot and tears,

"You were murdered by a shadow and he told me he took your soul and then you turned into a monster and—"

"I`m interested, really," She cut me off, "But let`s talk about it tomorrow, okay? I will be right here."

Ai collapsed back onto her bed before she reached her arm up to pull the string on the light above her, blanketing both of us with only the light of the moon once again.

"I`m very happy that I`m not a monster. Go to sleep."

I sat down on the mattress next to her, lifting the cover up and snuggling into the pillow. I stared from the window to every corner of the room as I listened to Ai quickly fall back asleep.

How can she do it, I asked myself, warily watching her forehead.  
>This is silly, I told myself. It was just a dream.<br>I rolled over and slept well into the next morning.

* * *

><p>SHUUICHI - KURAMA<p>

The main building`s clock tower chimed a familiar hymn, signaling that it was six and time for the club activities to let out. I searched for her as I held onto the parcel Mother had given to me to deliver to Chiba for her. It was too dangerous for her to travel this far after only recently being released from the hospital. The house was still in disorder despite my efforts to maintain it, so I was sent with a thank you note and a package of a diverse arrangement of teas and sweets for the girl.

"_At least until I can get everything organized, then maybe she can come visit here. Sweet girl. I miss her already." _

I had watched her wrap brightly decorated paper around the little box, trying it together with one of her favorite ribbons. Shiori put so much love into every gift she gave, and I was almost distraught that she couldn`t deliver it to the girl herself. It would mean more if she could give it to Chiba in person, especially after how I had frightened the girl.

I spotted her among the sea of upper junior high and high school students that filtered through the front gate, heading for the residence halls. She was chattering, her arm hooked in the arm of another student who was sporting a bland face as she listened to the story Chiba was telling her.

I waited patiently while her peers gave me wary looks, whispering to themselves about why a male student was standing at the gate of the strictly female academy. They shuffled past towards the crosswalk and spoke in hushed tones though I could hear every other word. I kept my laughter inside, slightly flattered by their remarks.

As they drew near, Chiba and noticed the strange behavior of her classmates in response to my presence at the gate and blue eyes met mine in a curious way. I noticed her grip on her friend`s arm tighten and she whispered something to her—the large, wool scarf encircling her neck hiding her lips, preventing me from reading.

As they approached me, I noticed the other girl attached to Chiba puff out her chest and straighten her shoulders. She was tall and thin with a bold presence. She said nothing, only stared at me with dark brown eyes encircled with even darker shadows. Her face was framed with longer, wind tousled black hair and an intimidating brow which held a quizzical and uncertain look directed at me.

"Hello Minamino," Chiba`s lyrical voice chimed at her side, and I looked from the dark haired body guard to her friend, offering up a forced, small smile to greet her with. As if that would be enough to take the edge of my presence away.

"Hello, Chiba," I handed her the parcel, and she unhooked her arm to receive it with both hands,

"This is from my mother. She wanted to give it to you in person but it would be unwise to have her travel so far. We hope you don`t mind."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, smiling as she looked over the brightly colored package before turning to her friend,

"Ai, this is Minamino Shuuichi—Shiori`s son. I told you about Shiori-san, didn`t I ?"

"Yeah." She droned, flickering her brown eyes back at me without changed her expression.  
>"Minamino, this is Tsukino Ai, my best friend here at school. " She looked back up at Tsukino with complete adoration on her face. Tsukino glaced to her but remained unapologetically defensive looking. It was only a brief moment before she turned her hard gaze back at me.<p>

"Hello." I nodded at her, receiving a thoughtful blink in return from the girl as a response. I could only assume that Chiba had uttered something unpleasant before they had stepped over. Not that I blamed her.

"I`m also supposed to deliver a personal invitation for dinner, but unfortunately the house is out of order still and Mother would like to be settled a little more before we have guests over."

"Of course," Chiba hugged the package to her chest, "I understand. I have her address, I`ll write to her and maybe we can work something out."

"I think she`d enjoy that. She hopes that you have some new stories for her." I felt a real smile creeping up on me, thinking of how endearing it was to see Shiori entertained when she was talking about the girl.

"A few, I guess." Blue eyes dropped to the ground as her smile threatened to drop from her face, lips pressed tightly together.  
>"You guess?" Tsukino spoke up now, looking down at the girl,<p>

"Do soul stealing swords not count?" Pale lips stretched back over white teeth and it was the first sign of emotion the girl had shown. Chiba turned a bright red before pouting up at her friend.

_Soul stealing swords. . . _

"_Ai_." Chiba`s voice came out as a sort of whine, something an irate child would respond to a teasing parent with as Tsukino smirked back at her. Chiba threw her a betrayed look before turning back to me,

"Tell Shiori that I am very thankful for the gift and to expect a letter in the mail from me next week, okay?" She smiled genuinely before pushing her friend to the crosswalk,  
>"Thank you, Minamino! Goodbye!"<p>

I watched as she briskly made her way for the streetlight, pressing the button for the walk. Chiba glanced over her shoulder at me with a small, uncertain smile on her face now that she was at a safe distance.

I turned and walked the opposite direction.

Chiba had known about the third artifact. This was solid information that I could add to her growing record of predictions—I was keeping track.

It would be enough to take to the Reikai with me.

I rounded the corner and found the blue haired pilot of the River Styx waiting for me, dressed in a Junior High uniform.

She smiled brightly at me, an oar appearing in her hands.

"Shall we depart the living word, then?"

* * *

><p><em>Thank you to pinkycakey, Lilcookie84, Sarah, samcatthorne, owlloveyou, and Guests, for reviewingfollowing/faving_

_see you soon. _


	4. Capitolo Quattro

"_I saw them," He said as we climbed over a fallen tree trunk. His fingers gently wrapped around my arm to steady me on the log as I leaped to the ground where his feet were planted._

"_I was on the shore and I heard the pipe, it played a sad song. That`s when I saw them—all the children of the town." _

"_What were they doing?" I asked, kicking up leaves as I went on my way. _

"_They just appeared, Hoshiko," He sounded bewildered still,_

"_They crawled out from behind trees. They were following the sound. And then something terrible happened. . . ." _

"_What happened?" I pressed for an answer when he remained silent. I watched his feet drag, no longer picking them up. _

"_The piper. . . emerged from the shadows. He was dressed in bright colors and it was like a movie. Thunder struck upon his appearance. . . lightening struck this tree down."_

_Tsubasa`s face turned a pale color as he looked back at the tree we had passed a few steps back, _

"_He lead them into the water. . . and never came out."_

* * *

><p><em>piper<br>_

* * *

><p>I`d awakened to Ai`s breath on my neck and I blinked up at the ceiling. She had rolled over onto me in the middle of the night. I wasn`t uncomfortable or overheated, in fact it was quite cool in the apartment considering that we had moved Ai`s space heater into the living room. I was just cozy enough under her body heat and the comforter.<p>

The last thing I had remembered was falling asleep on the floor, leaned up against Ai as she continued to review her notes for another class after we finished our assignment. I had been watching the news, dosing off between my roommate and the space heater.

I snuggled under Ai`s arm as I turned onto my side, listening to her even breaths go in and out, feeling the rise and fall of her chest against my back, her breath on the nape of my neck and my shoulder. It was quiet in our little apartment.

No melodies, no hypnotized children in the street. I was cozy physically but fretting mentally. I thought back to my dream about Ai being turned into a soulless zombie.

It seemed that, the more I repressed my stories now, the more enchanting and terrifying my dreams became. If I couldn`t shove my stories onto someone else, my subconscious pushed them onto me. . .

I didn`t want to believe these horrible dreams meant something.

* * *

><p>"<em>I told you, I don`t know anything about your third artifact." Chiba stared at Yusuke as if he was going to make a pass at her. He backed up a couple steps, hands shooting up in defense.<em>

"_It`s just interesting to us that you would know about the mirror." I interrupted, _

"_I realize it was purely a coincidence to you. Most psychics don`t realize their own abilities until they are much older and aware."_

"_Then that would mean that you already consider me a psychic. . . " Chiba`s eyes held curiosity. _

_Now that I was about to turn myself into the Reikai, I was starting to search for anything that could set me free from their inevitable ties. I had no doubt they would exploit me as much as they could for their own use, if I could bring them predictions of crimes that had not yet happened yet through Chiba, perhaps they would relieve me of the parole I had not yet received.  
>I had been wondering what Yusuke had done to deserve being the Reikai`s new dog, he seemed so young and unaware. Truly innocent. <em>

_His predicament was strange. _

"_I get that you think we`re real nut jobs, but we couldn`t just make this up." Yusuke`s voice was hushed, and he sounded almost skeptical of himself. As if he too hadn`t been completely convinced of his own job. _

"_How do you think we were able to even find these artifacts?" _

_I watched her eyes as her mind turned this question over. She had to be curious. _

_A girl so intrigued by fantasy couldn`t be offered Wonderland and simply object to it so quickly. _

"_But I don`t have any control over these stories. . . at least I hope some of them aren`t real. Sometimes I have dreams. Sometimes they scare me—' _

"_And that`s where we would become useful to you." I interrupted, "Yusuke and I aren`t average by any means. The only reason Yusuke could collect these artifacts is because of his own psychic abilities and the use of his reiki. He saved the souls of those children from Bunkyo by retrieving the orb. He saved my life,"_

_I looked over to the boy, who dawned a sheepish look, scratching at the back of his head,_

"_Of course my situation was a tad different. Still, it takes a truly selfless person to be willing to offer his own life up like that for a stranger." _

_Yusuke chuckled uncomfortably before mumbling in a pitchy and nervous voice,_

"_C'mon it wasn`t really like—that you know, I`m not that great or anything like selfless shoot I wasn`t even really—" _

"_You`re saying you think I could help people with my dreams." Blue eyes seemed disbelieving, the years of being told that she was nonsensical having taken a toll on her pride. Emotional scars of being made fun of by peers, family maybe. She already seemed a sensitive girl as it was. _

"_. . . Yes." I hesitated to answer, and received an even more skeptical, analyzing stare. _

"_You don`t need to feel pressured," I added, "You can think about it if you need to. But be assured that you aren`t as nonsensical as you have been made to believe you are."_

"_Not __**as**__ nonsensical." She repeated my words with a critical voice, and with a narrowed gaze. _

"_Come on, Hoshiko," Yusuke spoke up again, taking a serious stance now, _

"_Don`t you think that for once you`d like that someone took you seriously—" _

_I watched Chiba`s face carefully as Yusuke spoke, shocked he would speak so frankly to her,_

"—_You tell stories and you know they mean something, but you know no one will believe you. Why else would you be so defensive about it?"_

_Her mouth gaped open, brows furrowing. I watched her become thoughtful, eyes darting between the two of us. _

"_Haven`t you ever wondered if your stories about Tsubasa meant something more?" I pressed. _

"_No," Voice raised, she was defensive now, "He`s different. Everything I said about him—he wasn`t just make believe."_

"_That`s what I meant to—" _

"—_NO!" She barked now, and I saw Yusuke jump slightly out of the corner of my eye as the petite girl stepped towards me, jutting her chin out as she spoke, _

"_He`s different—I didn`t dream him. I knew him. I __**know**__ him. I know what I saw. He wasn`t a story that just came to me like some of the others. He. . . was a part of my life." _

_The topic was clearly sensitive to her, and it was best that we both left it untouched for the time being. _

"_I`m sorry, Chiba," I apologized, watching her take a step back, relaxing, "I shouldn`t have jumped to that conclusion." _

_Chiba`s shoulders slumped and a cold breeze sent visible chills throughout her body. I watched her shiver silently as she looked down thoughtfully again.  
>"I`ll think about it."<em>

* * *

><p>I immediately went to the mailbox as I did every day, stopping at number 6121, scrambling to find the right key for the box. I wiggled it into the lock and pulled it open, reaching my hand in—hoping that I would find an envelope under my fingertips.<p>

"There`s nothing." Ai came up from behind me, eye level with my mailbox. I looked back at her, . . . irritated. She wasn`t mocking me, I knew she wasn`t. But the reality of her words, hearing them outside of my head and from another.

It was like she was telling me there would always be nothing.

I slammed the door on the box as I felt tears stinging my eyes. Tsubasa was ignoring me, there was nothing more to it. I was completely irrelevant.

I stormed past the elevator where Ai had stalled. I purposefully skipped the ride so that I could be alone as tears made their way to the corners of my eyes.  
>"Hoshiko," I heard her call out, her voice filled with concern and confusion at what had happened. I continued to make my way around the corner, and up the steps. I head the ringing of the elevator arriving on the main level, the doors opening. She would beat me to our apartment, be waiting for me there to ask if everything was okay.<p>

This thought was what sent me spiraling into a full on sob fest, and I collapsed against the hand rail, curling up on the abandoned set of stairs somewhere between the second and third floor. The sunset painted the stairwell a deep orange color, light streaming in from the windows on each landing. They spiraled upwards every ten stairs. I looked up as I wiped my eyes. No one took the stairs after they had installed the elevators.

_Only people that hated themselves, _as Ai would say. But I couldn`t even chuckle at that now as I sat, feeling sorry for myself.

I thought about how long I had been sending him letters.

A handsome face surfaced in my mind. I reached up and pet the bow atop my head. Shiori had given it to me in her gift, along with two other jewel toned ribbons. I used them as headbands, knotting them in a large bow.

If Minamino could find that mirror. . . what else—who else was he capable of finding.

I wiped at my eyes with the sleeve of my uniform, staining it black with my mascara. What did I risk asking him for help?

I laughed, thinking of how hypocritical I had been, being so skeptical of what they had tried to tell me. I tried to push my stories on others didn`t I?

I found myself snorting at my own ignorance as I curled up, knees to chest. Who was I to judge anyway?

I could ask Urameshi and Minamino for their help. I knew how to get a hold of one of them at least. I hadn`t yet written a letter to Shiori.

I picked myself up off the steps and wiped at my eyes some more, making sure I looked like I was going to be somewhat okay.

I remembered how scared I had been when Minamino had first confronted me. He was so suspicious, like he had something to hide. If I were to accept and volunteer to help them. . . would I be allowed to know what they did with the information? What would I get in return?

Could I even ask for something in return?

And how could I ask for what I wanted them to find? I had acted as if I had been so sure of myself. But I was sure of myself, wasn`t I?

Tsubasa was such a vivid piece of my past. I remembered him, everything about his presence. The way he smelled, spoke. The way he felt. . . What if I proved not to be as useful as they thought I was? What if I was actually ordinary, they had blown me out of proportion. I was afraid of rejection. The idea of someone actually being interested in what I had to say, take me seriously. . . even Shiori didn`t, couldn`t believe that my stories actually happened.

I knew what I would ask for.

Ai had been waiting on the living room floor for me with her usual books and notes spread out around her and on the coffee table, the tv playing a rerun of a popular sitcom on. I entered the apartment to the sound of the quiet laugh track playing as I stepped in. I noticed that she immediately reacted to my arrival, head snapping up in my direction.

She had been acting very protective after I had freaked out and begged to sleep in her room because of the scare Minamino and Urameshi had given me a couple weeks before hand.

"Where have you been?" Her brow furrowed as she stared back down at her notes,

"Aren`t you starting this unit in your class?"

I let out a guilty laugh, remembering the assignment that was due the next morning. I carried my shoes back to my room, putting them away in my closet before retrieving my books before flopping on the sofa behind Ai. The warmth of the space heater thawed my chilled skin. I sat with my legs folded like a soft pretzel.

"Can I braid your hair?" I asked, avoiding my homework in every which way I would.

"I don`t care." She sighed as she erased a formula from the notebook paper, groaning. I glanced down at the pictures of little honeycombs and pentagons on her paper with letters scribbled around them.

And I didn`t dare ask what they were in fear of being immediately put to sleep.

I tested my boundaries at first, lifting the long strands off of her back, making sure she actually didn`t care that I was playing with her hair before continuing. I felt little butterflies rise from my stomach to my chest in excitement, having wanted to play with my roommates hair from the moment I set my eyes on the lengthy locks.

Smiling from ear to ear I sat up straight, running my fingers through the strands closer to her scalp, combing them into order before parting the hair down the middle, pulling it back at the nape of her neck before intricately weaving thin strands of hair in and out of each other, creating a braid much like the tail of a fish.

Her hair was long, shiny and healthy, free of split ends. Everything about my roommate was perfect. She was an ethereal being to me, natural beauty radiating from every clear pore.

"You should be studying." She reminded me. I pouted, continuing to weave in and out.

I stayed silent, ignoring her comment as I continued to braid.

"Why. . . what made you so upset?" Ai asked, causing me to purse my lips tightly.

"I uh, I made myself upset."

"Why?"

I slowed to a stop as I stared at the braid in my hands, the remaining unbraided strands separated by my fingers.

"I feel like I`ve been writing for so long. It hurts my feelings that I haven`t gotten a reply."

She stayed silent, I went back to braiding.

". . . He isn`t worth your time." She went back to her notes,

"Remember, you`re a purebread."

"Tsubasa is a purebread." I mumbled, to which Ai snorted,

"Sure. Seriously, get down here so I can show you how to do this."

"I`m going to go get an elastic!" I beamed, uncrossing my legs to retrieve a hair tie, avoiding doing the assignment. But as soon as I took the first step off the sofa, Ai`s hand wrapped around my wrist and I was pulled down to the carpet next to her. I hit the carpet with an "oof" and sent an irritated look her way. She didn`t notice, tearing a piece of paper from her notebook and handing it to me.

"But I don`t understand." I mumbled, crossing my legs. I reached behind her to grab the pencil I`d left on the couch cushion.

Ai looked back over at me with a look of realization before hovering over me to explain.

"You should have just asked for help." She said before drawing one of her own funny pictures on my blank piece of paper next to the number 1.

"Okay, so we`ve got our leaving group, which is our halogen. . . "

* * *

><p><em>The melody was haunting, stirring me in the dark from the lead weight sleep had tied to my ankles. I was now light on my feet, hanging out the window before I could get a grip on reality. The air was cold and crisp, prickling at every pore on my body.<em>

_I could hear a sort of pipe, wind instrument faintly carrying on in the breeze. The sound of a melancholy, sweet requiem. _

_I looked down from my window and saw him in the street below, down from my castle in the sky and much to my horror there he stood playing in the abandoned street at night, dressed in brightly colored, red robes with a white sash. He was adorned in gold bangles and jewelry. _

_And before him stood an entire town of children, just staring in awe of the music he performed on the pipe. _

_I remembered a story my mother told me about the Pied Piper. He played his music to drive the rats out of town. One day he went insane and used his music to hypnotize and kidnap all of the children in the town. A bedtime story to keep me from getting up and wandering outside to play in the middle of the night when mom and dad were asleep._

_They vanished in the night and never were heard from again. _

_I watched as he turned and began to march, continuing to play the music. The children followed behind him, matching his steps. _

_There was something else that wasn`t sitting right with me. Another story somewhere deep in my mind. _

_I remember the children drowned. They drowned and Tsubasa`s face had looked so frightened._

_I climbed out my window, onto the ledge of the residence hall, which was barely large enough to hold me as I pressed my back against the building. I scooted to the fire escape, grabbing onto the ladder and lowering myself onto the fire escape. _

_I hit the pavement with an "oomph" before I gathered my bearings and ran after them, feet against cold pavement. _

_I felt my sides burn as I caught up the skirts of the crowd, reaching out for the closest child, a toddler with bare feet. _

_I picked him up off the street, and he fussed, forcing his hands to my chest and shoving himself away from me. He wiggle wormed like any frustrated child would as he kept his face straight ahead towards the sound. _

"_Shh," I tried to hush him, but he only struggled harder, starting to cry. But no one noticed this, as they were all focused on the piper down the street, marching to his own melody. _

_I hadn`t enough arms to hold all of the children in the city. _

"_Stop!" I shouted after them, frightened tears welling in my eyes. My cheeks were growing hot as I held a sob back. My voice broke as I called after them, the toddler still fighting to escape. They ignored me, kept marching away. _

_And the piper just kept playing on._


End file.
